half-birthday

Happy half-birthday to me! Today marks the day that I am officially half way through the initially horrifying 23^rd year of my life. And guess what, I’m making it making the most of it. And dare I say, 23 looks good on me? Oh yea, I believe it does.

Facebook is awesome at target marketing, meaning my news feed is often full of articles like “Things I wish I Had Known in My Twenties,” “The Ultimate Bucket List for 20-Somethings,” “Letter to My 20 Year Old Self,” etc. etc. So of course I read all of them. Some of them are very inspiring and helpful, while others are a little unrealistic. How many 20-somethings do you know that can afford trips to China, Europe, the Burning Man, Thailand, etc…(to fulfill the 20-Something Bucket List, of course!) Maybe I’m a minority in this case, but I’m a poor 20-something that is paying off student debt with every paycheck, so I don’t see a trip, let alone multiple trips, out of the country happening anytime soon.

Nonetheless, soaking up all the 23-year-old targeted information has led me to be more conscientious about setting realistic goals for myself- like making health a habit after college and finding a church that fits me and budgeting myself so I can have minor splurges when “necessary.” These are things that I have probably been working on for some time, but they seem to move higher up the priority list every day. It’s funny how much the relationship with yourself grows after college. I have become my own personal mentor and counselor after leaving my professors and sorority sisters behind. But thanks to the help of Alex and a few phone calls home, I think I’m making it pretty darn well.

Thus far into 23, I have learned to cook, I find myself being a mindful shopper by checking the labels, I’ve purchased five books with intent to read them all and have finished one of them (possibly two by the end of today- (this is impressive for me)), I treat myself to hot tea (Yes, hot tea. I’ve always enjoyed it but only recently did it occur to me that I can have it anytime I want. If that makes me non-Southern, then so be it.), I have a 401k and a credit card with cash back rewards, I invested in my first Erin Condren Life Planner (I’m hooked now), I’ve found myself entertaining the thought of participating in a half-marathon on multiple occasions (though my longest running distance ever was a little over 3 miles. Hey, dream big!), and I read the news instead of just pop culture headlines. I also did my first tire burnout at a busy intersection because I believe that some things aren’t meant to be outgrown. If this year has been good for anything so far, it’s definitely the investment in myself. I could do better, but I could always do worse too.

So here’s my cheesy half-way through 23 list of (no-super-obvious) things I believe every early 20-something should do:

1. Read devotionals or something that stirs your spirit, not just your imagination.

2. Be around people of all ages and learn from them all. Don’t just listen to older people when they talk, ask questions as well. Chances are, they will love telling stories and giving advice and there’s an even higher chance that you will walk away with a lot more than you bargained for. And spend time with younger people too. Be entertained by the enthusiasm and open-mindedness of children and always listen when a teenager is talking…they will need you to tell them regularly that life isn’t over after a breakup or a bad day. Appreciate being in the middle. You may feel lost sometimes, but you fit perfectly right where you are.

3. Eat real food. Don’t just snack on junk. And be aware of what you put in your body. Don’t eat something you can’t pronounce, unless it’s foreign. Even then, you should probably Google it first just to be on the safe side.

4. Find what you’re passionate about and continually make time for it. For some it’s a lifelong journey- I still haven’t exactly narrowed my list down to what exactly makes my heart beat, but always be in pursuit of those things and you will never feel unfulfilled.

5. Invest in a crockpot. Sometimes it’s necessary to have dinner ready when you come home and only one dish to wash. Thank God for paper plates.

6. Clean your house once per week. You aren’t in college anymore- don’t let your home look like you still are.

7. Make old relationships a priority. Don’t let your time be so overtaken with jobs and chores and new ventures that you forget who really matters. Make the phone call. Make the drive. Save up for a plane ride/family vacation/girls weekend. It will always be worth it.

8. Don’t worry if you still don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing or are unsure with your direction in life. My dad is about to retire and still has never decided what he wants to be when he “grows up.” There is a time for everything and I firmly believe that your 20’s are all about patience and trusting God. Just keep hanging in there and remember, not everyone peaks in their 20’s.

9. Be a supportive alumni of whatever you did. Telling people how much better things were when you were there is for high school. We’re older and more wise now…give good advice and always cheer on your successors, for better or worse.

10. Get a job. Even if it’s not THE job. Don’t live off other people when you’re capable of supporting yourself. And don’t be a complete Millennial. There are pro’s and con’s to our generation- embrace the pro’s and try to maneuver around the con’s as much as possible to prove that our generation is not completely worthless.

11. Wear sunscreen and don’t smoke cigs, for crying out loud. Your skin’s cellular turnover (or whatever the heck it’s called) is slowing down, just like your metabolism. Live accordingly.

So there you have it; I have now given my Facebook-advertisement-worthy blog advice for 20-somethings. Sorry if you were expecting a nice even numbered list- I don’t do even numbers. Ever. Not even on my alarm clock. And that’s another great thing about being 23- I don’t care if we don’t see eye to eye. Makes life that much more colorful.

Here’s to the next six month’s worth of 23.

Love always,

Addie

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” –Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

“I’d discovered, after a lot of extreme apprehension about what spoons to use, that if you do something incorrect at table with a certain arrogance, as if you knew perfectly well you were doing it properly, you can get away with it and nobody will think you are bad-mannered or poorly brought up. They will think you are original and very witty.” –Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

“What a man wants is a mate and what a woman wants is infinite security,’ and, ‘What a man is is an arrow into the future and a what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from.” –Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

sweet, sleepy dreams…

When I came home for Christmas break I never had any intentions of taking a break from this blog…however the negligence is obvious in fact that I only have one blog for the entire month of December as well as the comment made by Aunt Laurie last weekend: “Everytime I go to your blog it’s the same hair flipping one.” That said, it’s time to get back to business…

I could bore you with my endeavors over this seemingly endless break, or tell you all about my Christmas presents, but I would rather skip the junk talk. I don’t figure anyone really cares that much anyways. But I do have to give a shout out to a very reminiscent Christmas Eve dinner with the cousins at the “kids table”: we all laughed for about an hour over the goofy things we used to all do as kids. A few of the notable memories were the ridiculous games we used to make up and the extent of the holiday madness that fell upon Nan’s house with 12 grandchildren all under the age of 10. “Spence is the Monster”, “Around the House Tag”, “Lego Wars”, “Hide and Seek in the Basement”, “Yahtzee Pool”, and “Disappear” were among the favorite games we coined (aren’t the names so original!?). As for the holidays that we experienced growing up in my family, I cannot simply explain them in one sentence. Instead, let me paint a picture for you:

Christmas Eve night at Nans approximately 1998: KIDS EVERYWHERE. Presents stacked as tall as the giant Christmas tree in the tiny living room that was bursting at the seams with stressed out parents, hormonal teenagers, groups of little heathens in a panic over the excitement of the presents, and one set of overly active grandparents (Nan and Papa). The energy in the room was indescribably amped and the parents forced each child to sit in their “designated area” on the floor and wait patiently while the gifts were dispersed. There was always a little dispute when one  kid got to climb under the tree to get the presents in the very back…of course that was always the “favorite kid” which tended to cause a bit of hostility among the overly stimulated youngsters. Then all at once, the paper shredding began. Sparkly bows, pretty paper, and nametags were flying through the air while screams of joy and well-practiced “oohs” and “ahhs” rang throughout the room. Parents pretended to be excited about the noisy new toy that their child just opened, while figuring out to do with yet another tractor (or in my case, Barbie doll) that will obviously not fit into the already overflowing toy box. After all the toys were open we were all forced to be silent while Papa called “Santa’s secret phone line” and one by one we all took turns listening to Santa. Eventually we would all make our way home where Aunt Laurie would call with an update on Santa’s whereabouts according to the radar and we would all tuck into bed, secretly scheming ways to catch the fat man, until sleep overtook us and ruined the plan.

This was the typical Christmas for us for many years until we finally moved the holiday festivities to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Marks (at the time) new house. By this point, the heathens were all a little bit older, however no more mature- meaning that they now fought over who got the privilege of passing out presents. After opening the gifts, instead of calling Santa we played one of the most infamous original “cousin games”- Around the House Tag. It actually began as a game we played inside the house, which was absurd considering the number of people that filled the house, leading to multiple collisions and accidents. Needless to say, we were forced outside in the freezing cold, but everyone knows the resiliency of a kid is out of this world so the temperature was no threat to us. We would run as far and fast as we could for hours on end, eventually having to create very specific rules and guidelines because homemade games always present those tricky “gray areas” where no one really knows who is “it” anymore.

I know that was a little much to take in, but I thoroughly enjoyed our reminiscent moment and just wanted to share just one of the many crazy experiences that I had growing up as a child in an over populated family.

I will throw this out there one last time: sitting at home in Sikeston while everyone else has already returned to Stark really makes me sad. But in the end, I know that I only have one more semester at dear ole’ Murray, so I better get excited and soak it all up while I still can. (I promise I’ll eventually stop complaining about this….a surprise visit from Kelly last week helped get me excited for the return as we considered all the trouble we can get into our last semester in the MKY!)

Martin Luther King’s birthday is coming up so get excited….whoot whoot…

“Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace” and “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul.” Look them up…love them both.

Ok, now that I got all the BS out of the way, it is time for the list of the memorable moments of 2010:

1. SEC brought home the national championship
2. Alice in Wonderland, Twilight Eclipse, Inception, Toy Story 3, and Facebook finally gets a movie!
3. Antione Dodson- “Hide ya kids, hide ya wife”
4. All of Katie Perry’s songs and Jason’s new album
5. Rescuing the Chilean coal miners
6. H1N1 epidemic is declared over! (or at least back to normal)
7. The International Space Station surpasses the record for the longest human occupation in space
8. Lady Gaga’s outfits
9. CERN scientists actually trap antimatter…Angels and Demons flash back
10. BP oil spill
11. Earthquake in Hati
12. Bret Michaels and Hugh Hefner get engaged (not to eachother, of course)
13. Oprah’s last show…
14. WAYNE IS REALEASED FROM JAIL
15. Lynard Skynard came to the rodeo…yeah, I said it
16. Murray is a buzzer-shot away from the Sweet 16
17. State makes it to the Gator Bowl
18. Prince William popped the question…finally, a royal wedding in my lifetime!

I’m sure there were many more noteworthy events that I am overlooking, but I am drawing this blog to an end. Sleep is creeping its way into my body and is quickly taking over. I promise to write again soon!

Love always,

Addie

“You know that place between sleep and awake, the place where you can still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you, Peter Pan. That’s where I’ll be waiting.” -Tinkerbell

every ending has a new beginning

Though I was an avid “xanga” member back in the day, the pivotal point of earning my driver’s license resulted in a completely different lifestyle where I no longer believed in the idea of spare time, eventually leading to the shutdown of my site. Last semester I was sitting in my living room, trying to come up with a suitable topic for a horticulture paper, when I found myself struggling to regain access to my old xanga page. I was quite the computer “wiz” during the xanga days, (or so I though) and somehow had developed my own layout for my page. Unfortunately, some of the ancient links I had used that once embellished my page, were now outdated and had thus locked my page from being opened. This led me to an entirely new challenge that seemed to be much more important than my pending class paper, which was just going to have to wait. I began going back through the old strategies that I once used to teach myself how to hack and tweak layouts and pages, and finally after an hour of sifting through technical jargon, I was able to read the “journal” that I began six years ago.

Skimming some of the old entries made me realize how much I have changed and grown since last being on the site, but made me appreciative that I still have a permanent, day-to-day journal from the “captivating” life my fourteen year old self.

We all know that most endings lead to new beginnings– the end of my xanga-ing did not lead to the “end” of the immortalization of my life via the net, thanks to my infatuation with facebook, which was a quick way for me to keep up with everyone else in my busy life, without having to make a daily entry. I have managed to stay up to date from high school until now, through photo albums, status changes, and wall-to-wall posts.

Fortunately, after owning a drivers license for several years, I have learned to balance my time, creating spaces that I can employee with what I like to refer to as “Addie-time.” Because I love to write, “Addie-time” began turning into time spent writing “notes” on facebook. While I am still obsessed with facebook (a.k.a. creepbook) and plan to continue with usage of the amazing network, I will no longer use the “notes” tab as my own personal journal.  Facebook was directed for social networkers, not writers.

Blogging sounds so cliché, but I guess I could always see myself doing something like this. My very own page, dedicated to all my rambling thoughts and atrocious ideas. Even if no one ever reads it, I can still sleep soundly at night, knowing that I somewhat publicized everything that was on my mind in an appropriate spot for them, and not in a section where most people post quizzes about themselves strictly for social purposes. Not to mention that I kinda like the fact that little parts of me will forever reign in cyberspace. (Creepy, I know.)

Ahhh, at last, I have found a proper outlet for my endeavors. Here they can either be despised or loved for what they are. But, no matter the result, instead of trying to fit into the socialites pages of the net, they finally have a place where they belong.

I guess that sums up why I have created this page, and thus ends the “introduction blog.” The first REAL blog is soon to come, so keep watching!

Love always,

Addie

“do what you love, love what you do….you’ll never work a day in your life.”